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Our switching service shows you how to find new customer opportunities by showing EA prospects how you can track, optimize, and manage their Office 365 and Azure licenses better in the CSP program.
Reseller wins over Automotive Experience Provider by revealing yearly O365 and Azure savings that are unlockable through switching to the CSP program.
Before State:
After State:
IT solutions architect saves his company from compliance nightmares and over $200K by switching to the CSP program.
Before State:
After State:
Right now, you may wondering who this service is for. If you are tired of competing with LARs or other resellers that are circling around in your client’s Office 365 accounts, having trouble finding ways to boost your O365 margins, or are having low success winning or prospecting for new clients for your company, then stick around because this service is for you. Furthermore, if you’re on the hook for bringing in a certain amount of margin quota this year or if you want a competitive O365 and Azure solution that can save your client’s hundreds of thousands in subscription fees, boost your margins, and block out your competitors, then you’re in the right place.
Today, you may be having a moderate amount of success trying to get business out of your customers doing what you’re doing.
In the past, any customer over 250 users was in an EA which equals limited success, competing against LARs and LSPs with what are perceived as having better programs and pricing. Recent changes to EA Microsoft pricing strategies around EAs allows you to compete for customers with up to 3000 users – but you need to be smart to realize how to do this. Convincing your customers to switch from EA to CSP is realistically the only way to grow your Microsoft business. Unless you’ve been selling EAs and Microsoft Licensing for years? You’re at a serious disadvantage right out of the gate.
Which is why, we’ve dedicated ourselves to becoming the only people who can solve that resource gap for Microsoft CSP partners.
The EA to CSP Switching Service has been developed based on MetrixData 360’s Founder Mike Austin’s 10+ years of experience as a member of the software licensing group at Microsoft and his considerable time spent working in the private SAM consulting industry.
It was here where Mike came to understand how Microsoft uses their licensing schemes, contract vehicles, and sales tactics to get companies to overbuy software that rarely gets used. And so, in order to help his client’s and partners retain their edge in Microsoft reselling, he decided to launch a service that leverages his and his team’s knowledge to show resellers where to find savings opportunities which they can use to give back to their customers.
The knowledge not only helped resellers find their customers more money in savings, it also became a valuable prospecting tool which helped them win clients over from competing entities.
Thus formerly spawned the CSP Switching Service. Which has now succeeded in helping MSPs save hundreds of thousands of dollars for their client’s and win over countless prospects all while receiving higher reselling margins at the same time. And now, companies from around the globe have retained MetrixData 360’s CSP Switching Services to keep an edge over their competitors to this day.
Step 1.
Research everything there is to know about the Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) program.
Great question. You can and should research the CSP program on your own. However, CSP resources are scarce. That’s why we created the course in the first place. To provide the best stream of EA to CSP info on this topic.
We estimate this course will take you about 2 – 4 hours to complete.
We highly recommend you watching the course, as it puts in perspective the value resellers and their clients can gain from participating in the CSP program.
Start reading Microsoft’s lengthy and unhelpful documentation.
Search Google for hours on end only to end up checking through outdated forums.
Take our EA to CSP course (included in our whole switching service). Enjoy 1:1 access with our expert team members to ask any questions you may have to.
Learn everything you need to about CSP in less than 4 hours.
You come back with spotty research, and a choppy understanding of the benefits and downsides of the CSP. You’re not exactly sure how it fully works, and you are getting stressed because you said you did to a client.
Develop a strong understanding of CSP.
Learn the tricks of the CSP switching trade.
Impress your clients with your deep insider knowledge.
Our robust EA to CSP course will educate you on all the nuances of the EA to CSP you need to know to show your client the cost saving opportunities that are out there for them.
Step 2.
Assess and analyze your client’s environment.
You can use your own tool. However, for the fastest and most accurate way to get to your client’s data we recommend using our tool known as SLIM 360. It has specific logic built into it to extract data from Azure and O365 environments.
You could totally analyze this yourself and draw your own conclusions. It is possible however exceedingly difficult. Doing this yourself requires a multitude of skill-sets that are hard to find. On top of that, DIY-ing could lead to expensive errors.
You’re used to creating a spreadsheet then tracking all the licenses you are supplying your client and estimating how much they can potentially save.
Use our Tool & Team to perform an assessment for you.
Receive a document and video highlighting only the best optimization areas.
Terribly slow process which takes way too long. It’s also at risk of being inaccurate. Especially if you are using a tool you’re not use to using or have low experience consolidating licensing data.
Our tool and team will sniff out any existing licenses, Azure reservations, and any other hidden benefits for you to capitalize on and make the switch more profitable for your client.
Our robust EA to CSP course will educate you on all the nuances of the EA to CSP you need to know to show your client the cost saving opportunities that are out there for them.
Step 3.
Create a business case highlighting the potential benefits for your client to over to the CSP program.
This is highly dependent on your situation. Whether you’re a salesperson, MSP, or solutions architect, we will show you exactly what you need to include in your business case as well as how to write it to make it irresistible to your prospects and clients.
Your client will likely know the basics. But this step we are taking that a step further and setting you up to show them cost savings beneath the surface level. Then we take it even deeper. We will provide you more place to show them like opportunities in security, cloud, and audit defense.
If your relationship is strong with your prospective client, then you don’t have to pull out all the stops, all the time. On the other hand, we still recommend showing them what they can expect in great detail.
You write out benefits of switching to CSP – that you’ve came across in your research. You also highlight some places where prices are cheaper in CSP. With these points jotted down you decide to call your client to tell them the good news.
Use info from our assessment to highlight the inactive users, underutilized storage, hybrid benefits, and more– to show the value you can offer them in the form of cost savings, security opportunities, and optimization.
The benefits you stated make for a week business case. You forget to show solid data to back up the value behind the switch. Your client is not overly impressed.
Client is impressed. They save more money and purchase less licenses. You gain a new business relationship
Our team has been doing this for years and can create a business case that will be able to blow your clients socks off.
Step 4.
Prepare a presentation for your client
Yes, if you’d like, you and our experts will meet to discuss beforehand to check the messaging and help cater your deck to your client.
You spend hours putting together a PowerPoint presentation and rehearsing it.
Have our team back you up on your presentation call. Or Coach you through what you need to say beforehand.
Client has heard the CSP benefits a million times over and does not care or see the new value you are offering.
Now that you’ve been coached on what to present and how to present it to your clients, (if needed) your presentation will go smoothly, and you will impress your client.
When pitching the CSP Switch, having experienced backup is usually necessary to seal the deal.
Step 5.
Answer questions and objections.
Yes, we do offer in-call support. Alternatively, we can go through beforehand and after if that suits you better as well.
Stressful process. Especially if you do not have a full knowledge of the program and client’s environment.
Offload your client’s questions to our team by having our experts on the call. We’ll help get through all objections with detail.
Alternatively, we can coach you through this before they presentation to make sure it goes as smooth as possible.
Client asks some questions you can’t answer, and they are weary of switching with you.
Our experts will answer questions your clients have in a way that always helps prove your value.
Being able to answer every one of your client’s objections thoroughly and accurately greatly increases the chance they will be willing to switch with you.
Step 6.
Migrate your client.
The migration process is simple. Since we’ve done all the complicated steps before hand. Essentially the migration process is a change of billing on the back end.
There are some slight differences in switching over to M365 and Azure products. For Azure, if the customer has subscriptions in a different Azure AD Tenant on their EA today, you will need to setup a separate CSP Partner Relationship for each of the Azure tenants. However, we will be available to help you with that after the assessment is done.
This is a simple written document available online from Microsoft that proves the reseller to client relationship. If your client is new to you, they will have to sign a new MCA that states they are now your customer.
You start to explain the process to the customer. They get increasingly nervous due to the excessive use of jargon and mentions of User Permissions.
Have our team help walk you through what to say to the client, or coach you on what to do and say for the migration phase. Alternatively, have an expert of ours join this call to help clear out any fog of switching over to CSP.
Client is hesitant to let you access any data and backs out of the deal because you have failed to educate them on what is truly happening.
Your deep knowledge of the migration process becomes clear when you can answer all your client’s questions in deep detail.
The migration phase of this service is relatively easy, however knowing how to explain it to your client is key to gaining their partnership.
As you can see here, you can start switching your clients to CSP in only 6 steps. However, that’s not the only way to go about the CSP Switch. It is totally possible to do this yourself or get someone internally to do the groundwork for you. No matter which way you slice it, building out a CSP business case has varying results depending on which route you take to do so. Let’s explore those different ways:
| Alternative Action | Alternative Result | Alternative Price | Alternative Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Ask someone else on your team to build out a CSP switching process. |
Your teammate may not know of all the intricacies of the CSP and could fail to answer client’s questions fully or leave out vital information when pitching their offer to potential clients.
Client becomes hesitant to switch. Your practice continues to be locked out of some company’s O365 opportunities. |
Cost is employee(s) salary for 4 – 8 months
~ $44K+ |
4 – 8 Months |
|
2 |
Hire a B2B marketing agency to build out your CSP offering for you. |
Marketing agency misses the mark as they are not fully aware of the clients’ licensing goals and how that ties to the industry that they’re in.
Money is wasted on a low resonance campaign Low quality leads generated. |
$80K + Employee time |
4 – 6 Months |
|
3 |
Start CSP switching yourself (DIY) |
Depending on your knowledge of the company’s current needs, there is a chance you may miss the mark on illustrating the benefits between their old agreement and buying in the CSP program.
You have miss identified services that are not allowed to move over to the CSP program and you now have a frustrated client and worse reputation. |
Your salary for 1 -2 months.
~ $24K + |
1 – 2 Months |
|
4 |
Implement Metrix Data 360’s CSP switching services. |
Develop an offering that highlights your firms’ skills and the savings potential for your clients and prospects
You can now offer Azure and M65 License optimization services to compete with LARs Greater understanding of the EA to CSP opportunity for clients Achieve healthier margins by selling licenses in CSP. Compete with the bigger companies in the 250 + user space. |
Take our pricing quiz to get a quote. |
1 – 4 Months |
Again, this is for Microsoft resellers and sales professionals who:
After going through some rough times, this US Based Pharma company was under pressure to find cost savings in their Microsoft software environment. The Director of Vendor Management, Mr.B knew switching to a cloud-based solution like CSP could save his company money, but without a way to look inside their data and analyze their office 365 subscription situation, they were weary to make any moves without crunching numbers first. To add to their problems, Microsoft was not overly enthusiastic to support them with their savings targets or switching journey as well. So, Mr.B set out to find someone that could help.
Enter MetrixData 360. Mr.B caught wind of MetrixData 360’s EA to CSP switching services after spending hours researching online.
Mr.B told us that he wanted to migrate their on-prem datacenters to Azure and check out the cost difference of switching his O365 to cloud. After a quick back and forth, we ran Paul’s numbers and showed exactly how much he could save with his Azure and O365 in CSP, in the cloud.
Which was over $250K a year on their subscription licenses alone. Then we also helped him remove over 400 unneeded licenses and hooked them up with a better CSP reseller which they continue to work with to this day.
1200-employee strong Pharma company under pressure to find cost savings. They wanted to switch to CSP to save some money on their O365 subscriptions. However, Microsoft did not support them on making the move or even investigate the option.
In 2 months, this pharma company’s director of Vendor Management saved over $250K in yearly savings by switching their O365 and Azure subscriptions to a CSP. They also got a new CSP reseller with better pricing and support.
This reseller wanted to win over an American automobile experience provider’s O365 Business. However, the company they were trying to woo, was already buying through a competitor LSP (License Solution Provider) in an EA. For this reseller to win over this company’s O365 business, they needed to show a way how they can help license better, cheaper, and less painfully. However, they didn’t really have the solution for this in their arsenal at that time.
Enter Metrixdata 360’s EA to CSP Switching Service. After this reseller contacted us, took our training and used our white labeled tools – we helped show them where the cost savings opportunities are in their client’s O365 and Azure Environment. In this case, we helped this reseller identify the potential client had been paying for abandoned storage and not using their Azure Hybrid Benefits to their full potential. And on the O365 side of things, we showed them that this client was still paying for numerous blocked and inactive users consuming Project BI, Visio, and M365 licenses that they didn’t need to be. With this new intel, our team helped them forge a rock-solid business case highlighting those savings that they could find with them as their new reseller. After they presented this new angle, the automotive experience company in question, was impressed with the 15% Office 365 and 7% Azure cost savings and decided to switch over to the reseller that partnered with us.
With this new partnership, the reseller accomplished a lot:
This reseller was lacking any special offerings and was competing on O365 prices with an LSP (Large Service Provider) to win business from an Automotive Experience Company. They were not hopeful that their bid would be chosen.
Reseller was able to show their client how they could save them over 15% on Office 365 and 7% on their Azure usage a year solely by moving to CSP. Client turned down the LSP and went with the Reseller.
Here’s a closer look at how the CSP Switching Service works:
| Steps | Old Activity | New Activity | How it's Better | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Hours of CSP research |
Take our EA to CSP Course |
Learn everything you need to know about these two licensing vehicles
Learn the process in depth from |
$1K |
|
2 |
Feed client’s data into a SAM tool |
Feed client data into Slim 360 Switching tool |
Tailor made to find savings in Office 365 and Azure spend.
Shows exactly how much a client can save when switching to CSP Much lower cost |
$20K |
|
3 |
Try to make sense of what your expensive SAM tool outputted |
Receive document highlighting all savings and potential optimization areas with our experts.
Then receive a video walk through from our experts explaining the findings in detail. |
Our experts will send you a detailed spreadsheet identifying the CSP savings opportunities found from the data
We will also send you a video walking through the numbers or go through it together over a call. |
$5K |
|
4 |
Use that data to go prospecting for potential clients |
Confidently pitch a rock-solid business case showing the benefits your client can expect when they switch from EA to CSP. |
Our experts will work with you to produce the best angles for you to pitch to your clients.
You will have compelling arguments that will make your prospects turn into your customers |
$10K |
|
5 |
Switch clients billing |
Change billing with help from our experts. Plus get follow up support to keep you on the cutting edge of the CSP space. |
Stop worrying about if you have correctly made the switch happen. Our experts will walk you through it step-by-step to make sure you have your new customers set up on the right track. |
$1K |
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
|
EA to CSP Switching Course |
$1K |
|
SLIM 360 Tool |
$20K |
|
Analysis Services |
$5K |
|
Business Case Building |
$15K |
|
Switching Support |
$1K |
|
Total Value |
$42K |
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
|
EA to CSP Switching Course |
$1K |
|
SLIM 360 Tool |
$20K |
|
Analysis Services |
$5K |
|
Business Case Building |
$15K |
|
Switching Support |
$1K |
|
Azure and O365 Assessment |
$20K |
|
15% minimum savings guarantee |
|
|
Total Value |
$62K |
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
|
EA to CSP Switching Course |
$1K |
|
SLIM 360 Tool |
$20K |
|
Analysis Services |
$5K |
|
Business Case Building |
$15K |
|
Switching Support |
$1K |
|
Azure and O365 Assessment |
$20K |
|
24/7 1:1 switching support from our experts |
$5K |
|
On-going contract negotiation support for all Microsoft products |
$20K |
|
15% minimum savings guarantee |
|
|
Total Value |
$87K |
We look forward to working with you to build out your CSP switching capabilities. If you have any questions left un-answered please reach out to us by clicking the button below:
Excellent question. It’s impossible to give you a price right off the bat without first checking the situation. Things like client size, time, and the number of products being switched, all factor into the price. We like to say it will be around $25K however that number usually changes.
If you would like to get an accurate price, please take the quiz. Or book a meeting to discuss.
This service usually takes about 1-2 months to be completed. However, we usually continue to help our clients well after their initial engagement is completed. If support is needed after that, depending on the situation and if our workload is heavier than usual, clients may be billed an hourly rate.
Good question but highly unlikely scenario. If you are worried that your prospects may be asking some great but hard to answer questions during your pitch, or anytime in-between, you can always let us know and we can perform a coaching session before or during the client call.
Our goal is to make you a CSP selling machine and we are dedicated to help get you there.
Great catch. Yes, this will work for IT, Procurement, and even Finance professionals in companies that are looking for Microsoft savings. The process may be slightly modified but we have helped many customers in IT positions at multinational companies bring CSP to the table and save their company hundreds of thousands of dollars doing so.
Good question. Yes, especially when it comes to Microsoft products. We can check SQL and Windows Server as well. Usually since customers keep those services on-prem we don’t get asked about them as much with our EA to CSP switching service.
That is an especially important question. If you want to be able to compete in the 250+ size company space than this service is for you. If you also want to bring in higher margins, more lucrative commissions, and are passionate about licensing in the cloud, than this service is also right for you.
If you read down this far, I’m sure this service can help you. So what are you waiting for! Book a call to find out!
That is always a good question to ask. If you don’t believe us, feel free to book a meeting and we can show you proof of some of the savings and results we’ve passed to clients we have worked with.
Excellent question. We know that this always comes down to the cost to benefit ratio. If you need extra materials or just someone on a call to explain the service, we are always available to provide a cost to benefit explanation to anyone inquiring.
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